New Edition - Cool It Now

What this video is

Released in the fall of 1984 as the lead single from New Edition's self-titled second studio album on MCA Records, 'Cool It Now' marked the group's decisive crossover moment — hitting #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and peaking at #4 on the Hot 100. The video arrived at a time when MTV was beginning to meaningfully incorporate Black R&B artists into mainstream rotation, and New Edition were frequently compared to a…

Why it matters

A landmark early-MTV teen R&B artifact that bridged the Jackson 5 legacy with the emerging New Jack Swing and boy-band template that would define the late 1980s and 1990s. The single's commercial success — #1 R&B, top-5 pop — demonstrated that young Black R&B acts could achieve mainstream…

The director

Jay Dubin is a New York-born director who transitioned from a background in physics and engineering into music video direction in the early 1980s. He became a prolific early MTV-era director, working with Daryl Hall & John Oates ('You Make My Dreams,'…